Hey, I'm Gheorghe Craciun
Hey, I'm Gheorghe, a Senior Software Engineer based in the UK with over 7 years of experience designing, developing, and maintaining scalable backend systems and web applications. I hold a BSc in Computer Science from Coventry University and enjoy building reliable, high-performance software that solves real-world problems.
Throughout my career, I've worked on large-scale distributed systems, improving system reliability, enhancing performance, and resolving complex production issues. I enjoy taking ownership of challenging technical problems and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality solutions.
I'm passionate about continuous learning, mentoring other engineers, and keeping up to date with modern software engineering practices, AI-assisted development, and emerging technologies. Whether working independently or as part of a team, I take pride in delivering robust, maintainable software that creates lasting value.
Professional Experience
Proven track record of delivering critical software solutions across enterprise fintech and software consultancy environments.
Senior Software Engineer I
- Developed and maintained critical components of a large-scale enterprise fraud prevention and risk management platform.
- Designed and optimized Elasticsearch queries to improve search performance and accelerate efficient data retrieval.
- Diagnosed and resolved complex production incidents in distributed systems using DataDog, Jaeger, and PagerDuty.
- Mentored junior developers and conducted performance reviews, fostering a culture of technical growth and ownership.
- Leveraged AI-assisted development tools to accelerate debugging, incident investigation, code analysis, and technical documentation.
- Proactively identified root causes during post-mortems and contributed to code quality standards through rigorous code reviews and automated testing (TDD).
Software Developer
- Developed a high-throughput Kafka-based streaming pipeline to process real-time data, drastically improving scalability and reducing latency.
- Built Spring Boot microservices exposing RESTful APIs for seamlessly interacting with Kafka topics and MongoDB storage.
- Applied Test Driven Development (TDD) methodologies to ensure application reliability and high code quality.
- Designed and implemented robust Helm charts for in-house applications, reducing manual configuration errors and deployment times.
- Orchestrated containerized applications using Kubernetes, ensuring scalable and reliable multi-environment deployments.
Software Engineer
- Architected, developed, and maintained scalable REST APIs using Python and Django, powering customer-facing web applications.
- Owned features throughout the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), from requirements gathering and system design to implementation, testing, deployment, and ongoing support.
- Built cross-platform mobile and web applications using Flutter and modern JavaScript, delivering a consistent user experience across platforms.
- Collaborated with stakeholders and cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into reliable software solutions.
- Improved application performance, maintainability, and code quality through clean architecture, code reviews, and testing practices.
Junior Software Developer & Data Analyst
- Analysed large-scale retail energy consumption data, identifying optimisation opportunities that contributed to a 10% reduction in overall energy usage across a 12-month period.
- Produced and presented detailed analytical reports to senior stakeholders, enabling data-driven operational decisions.
- Developed native iOS applications in Swift for a multinational retail client.
- Built interactive desktop applications using Java and JavaFX for commercial touchscreen retail systems.
- Worked closely with clients and internal teams to gather requirements and deliver software aligned with business objectives.
Technical Stack & Toolkit
Comprehensive overview of technologies, frameworks, and engineering methodologies.
Java
7+ years developing robust backend services, object-oriented designs, and concurrent applications.
SpringBoot
Building production-grade microservices, RESTful APIs, security integrations, and data persistence.
Apache Kafka
Designing real-time event streaming pipelines, pub/sub topics, and low-latency message processing.
Kubernetes & Helm
Orchestrating containerized workloads, managing Helm release charts, and cluster configurations.
AWS / GCP
Deploying scalable cloud architecture, cloud storage, IAM policies, and cloud-native services.
Docker
Building optimized container images, multi-stage Dockerfiles, and local compose stacks.
Elasticsearch
Designing search indexes, complex query optimization, and fast data retrieval for fraud analytics.
SQL & MongoDB
Designing relational & NoSQL schemas, database indexing, query tuning, and ORM mappings.
gRPC & Play!
High-performance inter-service communication with Protocol Buffers and Play framework.
Flutter
Cross-platform mobile application development using Dart, responsive UI layouts, and state management.
Native iOS & SwiftUI
Engineering native iOS mobile applications using Swift, SwiftUI declarative layouts, and Apple frameworks.
JS / TS / Angular
Building responsive web frontends, REST client integrations, and modern UI components.
TDD & Agile
Test Driven Development practices, unit/integration testing, sprint planning, and code reviews.
🎓 Education History
BSc (Hons) Computer Science
Focused on software engineering principles, algorithms, data structures, object-oriented programming, and distributed systems.